Program overview
Under the lifestyle assets data-matching program, we collect data on insurance policies for certain classes of assets, including:
- caravans and motorhomes
- motor vehicles
- thoroughbred horses
- fine art
- marine vessels
- aircraft.
We acquire data from insurance providers to improve our compliance risk profiling of taxpayers and provide a holistic view of their assets and accumulated wealth.
Program objectives
Our data-matching programs help us fulfil our responsibility to protect public revenue and maintain community confidence in the integrity of the tax and super systems.
The objectives of the lifestyle assets data-matching program are to:
- promote voluntary compliance and increase community confidence in the integrity of the tax and super systems
- assist with profiling to provide compliance staff with a holistic view of a taxpayer's wealth
- identify possible compliance issues with income tax, capital gains tax (CGT), fringe benefits tax (FBT), goods and services tax (GST) and super obligations
- determine avenues available to assist in debt management activities
- gain insights from the data to help develop and implement treatment strategies to improve voluntary compliance, which may include educational or compliance activities as appropriate
- identify and educate those individuals and businesses who may be failing to meet their registration or lodgment obligations and assist them to comply
- help ensure that individuals and businesses are fulfilling their tax and super reporting obligations.
Why we look at lifestyle assets data
The lifestyle assets data-matching program will allow us to identify and address a number of taxation risks, including:
- omitted or incorrect reporting of income – taxpayers accumulating or improving assets with insufficient income reported in their tax returns to show the financial means to pay for them
- omitted or incorrect reporting of income and/or capital gains – taxpayers disposing of assets and not declaring the income and/or capital receipts on those disposals, or declaring them incorrectly
- incorrect claiming of GST credits – taxpayers may be purchasing assets for personal use through their business or related entities and claiming GST credits they are not entitled to
- omitted or incorrect reporting of FBT – taxpayers may be purchasing assets through their business entities and applying those assets to the personal enjoyment of an associate or employee giving rise to a fringe benefits tax liability
- use of assets by self-managed super funds (SMSFs) in breach of the law – SMSFs may be acquiring assets but applying them for the present-day benefit of the fund's members or other related parties.